


The Story of Alice Knitting Needle of Boye and How She Brought Peace and Prosperity to the World of Yarncraft

by eirenical (chibi1723)



Category: Knitting (Anthropomorfic)
Genre: Alternative Lifestyles, But I'm really glad I did, Exploration, Fables - Freeform, Happy Ending, I just didn't expect to take it seriously, Other, Part of me can't believe I wrote this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-24
Packaged: 2017-11-22 07:33:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/607375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chibi1723/pseuds/eirenical
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sit down, my friend, and let me tell you a tale -- a tale of how one young and adventurous knitting needle brought peace and prosperity to the world of Yarncraft.  Her name was Alice… and this is her story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Story of Alice Knitting Needle of Boye and How She Brought Peace and Prosperity to the World of Yarncraft

**Author's Note:**

  * For [maryling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maryling/gifts).



> **Title:** The Story of Alice Knitting Needle of Boye and How She Brought Peace and Prosperity to the World of Yarncraft  
>  **Fandom:** Knitting (anthropomorphic)  
>  **Pairing:** Probably wouldn't make sense, anyway. ^_~  
>  **Rating:** G  
>  **Warnings:** alternative yarnwork lifestyles?
> 
>  **Disclaimer:** Uh… I'm not even sure _how_ to write a disclaimer for this. O_o;;; I suppose the best would be to say that all name brands are used without permission of their owners, but with no ill intent, and characteristics of said name brands portrayed in this story are in no way meant to reflect upon the quality of their respective product lines. ^_~
> 
>  ** _December 24 2012:_** When I first saw this category come up in nominations, I was… well… skeptical, to put it kindly. I do some yarnwork, myself, and I just couldn't see how you could make an actual story out of that. Then I read your prompt and, joke's on me, a plot bunny pounced. O_o;;; So, I intended to write this tongue-in-cheek as a crack fic of sorts, but somewhere along the way, I got attached to poor unique Alice and awkward little John and… and… hopefully you will, too? *sheepish grin* Enjoy!

Sit down, my friend, and let me tell you a tale -- a tale of how one young and adventurous knitting needle brought peace and prosperity to the world of Yarncraft. Her name was Alice… and this is her story. 

* * *

Alice had started out life the child of modest parents. A more sturdy, reliable, hard-working pair of 5 mm circular knitting needles couldn't be found, anywhere. They hadn't started out that way, of course. Her mother, Sally, and her sister, Stacy, had grown up as a pair of regular knitting needles, created scarf after scarf after scarf between them. They were soft scarves, warm scarves, well-made. Those scarves graced the necks of children all over the community -- bright pinks, lovely blues, even an occasional color-block, but nothing too exciting -- that wasn't Sally and Stacy's way -- but, they'd been happy, and Alice's grandparents had been proud. Alice had seen some of those scarves -- they'd been handed down in their families and even now adorned the necks of their original owners' children. Her mother and aunt had done beautiful work… if a bit boring.

As Sally grew older, though, she began to yearn for a true match of her own -- a strong, straight and sturdy knitting needle, perhaps even a bamboo -- with whom she could form a bond of her own. David had been handsome -- Alice's Aunt Stacy had told her so -- smooth, with an easy gliding way about him, comfortable in the hand, easy to work with and with strongest and most flexible nylon tail you'd ever seen. It was no wonder that Alice's mother had fallen for him.

They had started out simple, tried making a few scarves together. It was easy, something they both understood, and it required very little commitment on either of their parts -- it was always a good idea to work with a potential partner for a while before agreeing to tie the knot for good. Those initial scarves were… well… Alice had seen them. To be entirely fair, neither had worked with anyone outside of their families before and new partnerships take a while to settle into. Sally was bright red aluminum from Boye, David a sturdy bamboo from Clover. Their first few projects were less than perfect. There were dropped stitches, tangled yarn overs and, good grief, their one attempt at lace had had to be unraveled for scrap yarn before they were halfway through, but they persevered, determined to learn to work together.

Then one day… something magical happened. While dealing with a particularly frustrating tangle made by a particularly cantankerous Lion Brand Homespun skein, Alice's father had reached out for her mother, trying to pull himself into proper alignment… and they connected. In that moment, everything changed. No longer were they a mismatched pair of needles negotiating their work style. Now, they were a circular pair -- both aluminum, attached at the base by David's 36 inch nylon strand. From then on, they worked together like a well-oiled machine. And, oh, the projects they tackled! No longer were they restricted to scarves and the occasional hat! Now they knitted shawls, baby blankets, sweaters -- the sky was the limit!

That was an idyllic time for them. They made friends with cable needles, double-pointers, even adopted a few stitch markers as pets, and the projects they turned out were lovely. It wasn't long before they began wishing for a family of their own. They tried for months to conceive a pair of baby knitting needles. And just when it seemed as though it wasn't going to happen… that was when Alice and Amanda were born. Daintier than their parents at 4 mm, they were still a happy addition to the household. They couldn't handle the bulkier yarns -- not yet -- but they were quite dextrous with a skein of Primo fingering merino or even a Lion Brand Amazing.

From the get-go, they were more adventurous than either of their parents. They chafed at being stuck at home churning out garter stitch scarves and ribbed hats. Behind their parents' backs they began experimenting with cables, complex twists and yarn overs. They were sly about it, did their best not to get caught, but someone was bound to catch on, eventually. It was their grandparents who finally did. They figured out that Alice and Amanda were working their way up to attempting lace… and of course, they told Sally and David.

Alice's parents were concerned, of course, felt that trying lace was above them, was far beyond their difficulty class as they had failed so miserably at it with their own attempt, and tried to talk the sisters out of it. Amanda bought into it, ashamedly agreed not to step beyond their station in life, again, but Alice refused, insisted that those class systems were archaic and had been put in place by needles who wanted to keep all the power on their own nylon cords. Her parents had been furious, insisted that she hand over all of her pet stitch markers and return to working good, honest garters and stockinette's until she came to her senses.

Alice would have none of it. She'd had a taste of what it was like to make something more difficult, something that was a true challenge to her abilities… and she wanted more. Telling no one but her sister where she was going, Alice ran away from home that night.

Of course… life isn't kind to a knitting needle alone. Alice found out later that her sister had begun courting a plastic 4 mm from Susan Bates. Eleanor was her name. It made Alice smile, thinking what a stir that must have caused -- her staid, simple, reliable sister… bonding with a needle from Susan Bates. She'd moved there, Alice heard, taken Eleanor's plastic for her own and bonded into a circular pair with a modest 16 inch cord. Her grandparents had screamed that it was a step down, a disgrace to the family name, but Sally and David were supportive. As terribly as their rejection of Alice's dreams had backfired, they weren't risking losing their other child the same way. They just wanted her happy.

As for Alice… well, she fell on hard times. As noted, a knitting needle alone has a difficult time making his or her way. She fell in with a bad crowd, trying to find a place to fit in. A knitting circle of DPNs tried to entice her to join them, but it was awkward, at best. Her base knob kept getting in everyone's way and she was never really comfortable sharing her affections with more than one needle at a time. They'd parted ways and Alice had traveled on alone.

Everywhere she went, she met pairs of needles -- aluminum, plastic, bamboo, even a rosewood pair or two. They came from all over, some sturdy and hard-working like her parents, some daintier even than she, some over-muscled and used to handling multiple strands of extra-bulky yarn. Those last had intrigued Alice and she'd tried to make it work with one of the gentle giants, eager for the warmth and bulk of one of the overlarge afghans she'd seen him complete, but it had been no use. He was too big and she too small. She'd been sorry to leave him, but felt she had no choice. He'd have broken her in half before she even had a chance to complete one stitch.

Finally, just as Alice was ready to give up on her attempts to find a better life for herself and return to Boye… she'd found herself somehow back there. Only, this was a Boye she'd never seen before. This was the _other_ side of Boye -- the other side of the tracks that her grandparents had so warned her against exploring. And now, she began to see why. There were all manner of strange creatures living in this part of the village! They ran around in singles -- _no pair_ \-- and they were terribly short, with odd hooks at their ends. Some even had strange hinges below their hooks and wide bases that couldn't _possibly_ hold a row of stitches. Though clearly different breeds, they seemed somehow to live in harmony.

Alice approached one of the strangely hinged hooks, her natural curiosity rising to the fore, and asked how on Earth she managed a garter stitch with such an odd design. The hook had smiled at her and laughed politely, and invited her into her home. Alice had sat with her all afternoon, fascinated by the fuzzy faced rugs and wall-hangings that decorated her new friend's home. There were dancing bunnies, vibrantly colored giraffes, even footballs! Alice just wanted to lay down and rub herself all over them. When Alice finally settled, her new friend, Diana, explained that she was not a knitting needle, but a latch hook, that she didn't need to hold a great number of stitches because she only worked with short lengths of yarn, one at a time.

It turned out that all manner of hooks lived in this new Boye that Alice had come upon. The others that she'd seen about town were a different kind of hook -- a crochet hook -- and, though they also worked with full skeins of yarn, creating the same kinds of projects that Alice and her kind did, they worked alone, one stitch at a time, like the latch hooks. Alice was fascinated, couldn't wait to learn more. Diana invited her to stay, to visit with them for as long as she liked -- in truth, the residents of this Boye were just as fascinated with Alice as she was with them. None of the residents had ever seen a lone knitting needle before!

Alice stayed among them for days. Those days soon turned into weeks, then into months. And Alice was happy. The hooks were welcoming, understood too well the pain of loneliness that Alice was currently living, but Alice, as happy as she was with her new neighbors… was dissatisfied. She missed the joy of creating beautiful yarn work, of joining with Amanda to make those beautiful scarves and hats. Really, she just missed being useful.

One day, as she was wandering through town, she came across a young crochet hook -- a size H, she remembered, similar in size to her parents' 5 mm, and made of a handsome bright green aluminum -- who'd become entangled in his Caron Simply Soft. He had a stitch half-completed and the tail of the yarn had gotten wrapped around his base. He looked so awkwardly abashed that Alice couldn't help but laugh. He tried to save face, to demonstrate that he wasn't as awkward as he seemed, and only proceeded to get himself more tangled. Alice laughed harder.

After a few minutes of watching the poor hook's failed attempts to free himself, Alice finally stepped in to help. She had found that she was uniquely suited to untangling knotted yarn because of her pointed tip, and it had become the one useful thing she could do around here. Only… with this particular hook, it proved not so easy. He continued trying to twist free and managed to get Alice tangled up right with him, her length lying right along his!

After a few _very_ uncomfortable moments of attempting to untangle themselves, the crochet hook finally stopped wiggling and said, "Uh… under the circumstances, I think perhaps introductions are in order." When Alice laughed in response, he said, "My name is John. What's yours?"

"Alice. It's a pleasure to meet you, John," Alice said.

After another moment of silence, John offered, "I have to say… I've noticed you around before. It's, a little hard not to, you know? You're so tall, such a beautiful shade of blue aluminum. I wanted to talk to you before now, but I was… I was…"

Alice said, "…intimidated?"

"Yes, exactly! After all… I'm forever getting tangled and I get bored with my projects _long_ before they're finished or I take on more than I can handle on my own and… why would you want anything to do with me? I… I'm not a knitting needle. I can barely crochet! I could never knit with you, never be what you need…" John finished, sadly.

Alice was silent for a moment, thinking. After a while, she said, "Well… it sounds to me like you just need a little help. And don't sell yourself short! These difficulty classes are nonsense, anyway. If you want to do something more interesting… do it! And, who knows? Just because you can't do it alone… where's the shame in asking for a little help?"

John wiggled around, happily, and Alice could tell that he must be blushing up by his hook. Once he settled, she said, "OK. Good. Now that that's settled… let's see about getting you untangled, hm?" She pondered their situation for a moment, then jumped a little in joy, "Ah! OK, John, this isn't going to make much sense, but bear with me. I think the trick is that we need to get _more_ tangled to get _un_ tangled." At John's dubious look, she said, "No, trust me! It'll work!" Under her breath, she added, "…I think."

She guided John to continue to twist the stitches around himself -- like a combination of crocheting and casting on. Casting on was at least something Alice knew and something she knew how to _un_ do. After all… if one casts on, one can then cast off, right? Once they had a row of stitches bound around themselves, Alice guided John to cast off until they'd unwound the entire yarn but one stitch. However, when John moved to slip that last stitch from his hook, Alice said, "Wait! John… look what we've done!" She jumped about in a little dance of happiness.

What had they done? They'd created a new stitch! It curled slightly, like a knit pulled too tight, but it was thick and tightly interlocked… and _soft_. She breathed out, slowly, and said, "John… do you think we could try that, again? On purpose, this time?"

So, they did. It took many attempts to get it right, to get the hang of the pattern, but once they did, everyone exclaimed over how beautiful their finished work was. John and Alice were tickled pink. It was far from traditional, and they didn't know if they would work as a pair long term, but over the course of creating this new stitch, John and Alice had fallen in love… and they wanted to try. Alice grew to a 5 mm hook to match John and they called their new stitch "Tunisian Crochet."

One year later, when their love bore fruit, everyone in Boye -- even Alice's parents and sister, with whom she'd reconnected -- waited with baited breath to see what manner of children they would birth. Would they be knitting needles? Would they be crochet hooks? Or would they be something else entirely? The answer to that question came when they gave birth to triplets -- a pair of red aluminum knitting needles they named Tom and Theodore… and an extra long crochet hook named Jillian, who proudly declared herself a Tunisian Crochet Hook, and picked up what her parents had started.

John and Alice couldn't have been prouder of their children. Tom and Theodore started simple, but eventually became entranced with lace patterns and Alice was all too happy to teach them what she knew. Tom eventually paired off with a knitting needle from the other side of Boye, but Theodore found a lovely crochet hook from his grandfather's homeland of Clover to settle down with. Jillian was all too happy to help him learn Tunisian Crochet. Needles and hooks were soon coming from far and wide to learn this new technique.

* * *

And there you have it, my friend. This exchange of knowledge and this new way of working together brought an era of peace and prosperity to the world of Yarncraft such that it had ever known before… all because one little knitting needle named Alice refused to believe it when she was told, "You can't."

**Author's Note:**

>  **A/N** :
> 
> As a side note, I visited your Ravelry page you have some beautiful work. ^_^ I'm also greatly amused that you've done a "Wingspan" shawl... because _I'm_ working on a Wingspan shawl! ;D Mine's a knit, but if I knew it came in Tunisian or regular crochet when I started it, I'd have been tempted to do one of those instead. Thank you for sharing and I hope you enjoyed my little story! ^_^


End file.
